President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to take on Obamacare; good for him — but any lasting solution to this ongoing disaster will require major surgery.
In the decade since it really got going, the Affordable Care Act has only made health care more expensive, even as it hid the soaring costs from most consumers — who’ve still had to deal with ever-narrower freedom of choice.
It seems the White House has realized what a monster it faces; after news outlets reported some of the ideas under consideration, Team Trump put off announcing anything as it apparently takes another look under the hood.
One possible, understandable move: extending COVID-era enhanced subsidies for another two years — a year more than Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hinted his party would accept during the government shutdown.
That’s a testament to Trump’s desire for bipartisan support, and an acknowledgment that Congress may have to kick the can down the road for the short term while it figures out the massive overhaul that’s needed.
Fact is, the program’s a colossal failure: It’s destroying the health-care insurance market, adding oceans of red ink to the nation’s debt and isn’t even all that great a deal for “beneficiaries,” thanks to its steep deductibles and limits on providers.
Indeed, per the Congressional Budget Office, most people could get better plans at lower costs without Obamacare: The Affordable Care Act’s attempts to shepherd everyone into a narrow range of government-designed policies only made the insurance marketplace more of mess.
And papering over the way it’s driven up costs would compel Uncle Sam to keep shoveling out hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Sigh: Rather than admit the program is unsustainable, Democrats want to keep on spending cash the government doesn’t have.
Will they even go along with some of the modest fixes the White House is reportedly considering?
Eliminating “zero-premium” plans (where the feds pay the whole thing) and setting a minimum for premium payments would save Uncle Sam a fortune, since half those plans are never used: Sleazy brokers sign people up without their knowledge, letting insurers collect from the taxpayers without ever having to pay for any actual care.
Not that this is a complete windfall for insurance companies: Those profits help cover money-losing policies, so premiums don’t skyrocket even more.
Trump’s also said to be eyeing new income limits on eligibility, and an incentive to purchase lower-cost plans that would send the savings to enrollees’ Health Savings Accounts.
More money, in other words, would go to individuals rather than insurers, giving patients more control, boosting competition and helping curb costs.
Yet these patches won’t be enough in the long run.
Obamacare tried to address everyone’s needs in a single government program managed by private insurance companies, resulting in a Rube Goldberg mess of cross-subsidies, mindless mandates and perverse incentives.
Perhaps worst: The promise that it would “bend the cost curve down” has proved as false as “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
It’s proved to be a recipe for ever-higher costs and ever-less choice — yet Democrats and their media allies will go nuclear over any fix that harms anyone except the taxpayers, and the future generations getting stuck with the bills.
If the denialism doesn’t end, the dysfunction will keep growing until the whole program comes crashing down, leaving tens of millions of Americans in the lurch.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
